Terra Industries, a Nigerian defence technology company, has closed $2 million in contracts to protect lithium mining operations in Nigeria. This is its first commercial deal, signed barely weeks after launching its commercial division. The contracts cover two undisclosed mining companies. Under the agreements, Terra will deploy 20 sentry towers and four Iroko drones across their sites for surveillance, real-time threat detection, and security response.
All systems will run on ArtemisOS, Terra’s proprietary autonomous command and control software platform. Expansion is planned as each operator brings additional sites online. The speed of the deals is significant.
Terra’s commercial division launched on 28 August 2026. The division was built specifically to extend Terra’s autonomous security systems beyond government and military contracts to privately owned infrastructure operators across Africa, the Gulf, South America, and South Asia.
“Government and military work will always be central to Terra,” said co-founder and CEO Nathan Nwachuku at the time of the commercial division launch. “But the commercial division gives us a constant flywheel of partnerships across industries, and it makes us a stronger business because it puts our technology to work.”
Terra Industries’ rapid rise
Terra Industries was founded in 2024 by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka with a single objective to build Africa’s sovereign defence-industrial base. In two years, it has moved from a startup to one of the continent’s most closely watched defence technology companies.
The company’s growth has been rapid. In August 2026 alone, Terra closed a $52 million seed round backed by 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital, SV Angel and new investor Norleo Space Investments, which is its largest funding round to date.
It appointed former SpaceX executive Ben MacWilliams as VP of Strategy. It announced plans to open Africa’s largest drone factory in Ghana before the end of the year, alongside an existing facility in Nigeria. And it opened its first office outside Africa in London.
Before the commercial division launched, Terra’s technology was already deployed to protect power plants, mines, and other nationally critical assets valued at approximately $11 billion across multiple African countries.
The company says it is on track to reach more than $100 million in contract bookings by the end of 2026. The $2 million in lithium mining contracts is the commercial division’s opening move. Mining, oil, and power operators across Africa run critical assets in locations where formal security coverage is thin and response times are long.
Terra’s Iroko drones and sentry towers, coordinated through ArtemisOS, are designed specifically for those environments, providing perimeter security, real-time threat detection, and deterrence without the cost and complexity of large human security teams.
Nigeria’s lithium deposits are part of a broader continental mineral wealth that the world is increasingly paying attention to. As demand for lithium-ion batteries grows alongside the global electric vehicle market, the pressure to secure mining operations in remote and underserved locations will only increase.
Read also: Reps push FG to support local drone manufacturing amid rising security threats
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